UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

Recognition under International Law by Aarif Muzafar Rather

What proceeded the emigration of Jews into Palestine is a story of great distress and a living account of the evasion of international criminal justice and the politics around it. The political and geographical fragmentation of Palestine, increasing control of West Bank territory, deteriorating human rights standards, increased Israeli military presence suggest that the resolution of the issue is as remote as it has been through more than a century of the occupation. In 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights that only increased the methods of warfare and occupation. As far as the international status of Palestine is concerned, it is recognized by 193 member states of the United Nations (as of 2015). The Palestinian Declaration of Independence proclaimed the establishment of Palestinian state in exile and their claims of statehood were rendered even weaker as they were disposed of the territories they claimed. The development of international criminal law witnessed a subjugation of the Palestinian population. As for example, while the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was being drafted in 1948, “Palestinians were ‘cleansed’ of areas of the new state of Israel”(Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict). Similarly, when the war crime of transferring settlers into an occupied territory was included in the Rome Statute, Israel objected to it, arguing that it was not an offence of customary nature.